


We can recognise a person by their shadows

by IWillNotBeSilenced



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic, the foxhole court
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Protective Andrew, Protective Nicky, Teenage Aaron Minyard, Teenage Andrew Minyard, Teenage Minyards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 07:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18442256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IWillNotBeSilenced/pseuds/IWillNotBeSilenced
Summary: Takes place right after Nicky takes custody of the twins.Aaron has nightmares. Nicky is learning how to reach his cousins. Andrew is protective and watchful.





	We can recognise a person by their shadows

**Author's Note:**

> I finished The King's Men today and there are SO MANY things left unsaid that I want filled in. I'm starting with this.
> 
> Content warning: Mention of physical violence and child abuse.

Aaron jolted awake gasping. He stared, wide-eyed at the ceiling, too afraid to scrunch them shut, though neither did anything to block out the images of his mother raining blows down upon him as he backed into a corner, arms raised. Just a dream, Aaron told himself, willing his fingers to uncurl from the sheets rucked up around him. Breathing still shallow, he swung his legs over the side of the bed on autopilot. Hands in fists at his sides, he stumbled into the corridor and straight into the door of the room opposite. Just a dream, but he had to check she was definitely asleep, had to be sure. He stopped up short halfway into the room, hand still on the doorknob, as a figure sat up in the double bed at the centre of the room. Aaron took a step back, instinctive, and almost crashed into the doorjamb as a male voice gravelly with sleep but instantly alert said ‘What is it?’

Aaron made a sound that was halfway between a gasp and a sob and crumpled to his knees. Nicky was out of bed and across the room in seconds, arms braced around Aaron’s chest as he started to hyperventilate, his whole body shuddering. 

‘Aaron! Aaron, hey, hey buddy, what’s going on?’ Nicky fought to keep his voice low in an attempt to be soothing, but his words caught slightly in panic. God, he was too young for this. ‘Can you breathe? Just slow down a second, buddy, I’m here. Breathe.’ Nicky inhaled and exhaled exaggeratedly against Aaron’s back, trying to get his cousin to copy him. They sat there for a few beats, clinging to each other in silence, the only sound Aaron’s ragged breathing fighting desperately to imitate Nicky’s much slower breaths. Nicky exhaled heavily for real as he felt the rigidity go out of Aaron’s body, silently thanking God that he didn’t have to call the emergency services or, God forbid, his parents for advice on what to do when your kid spontaneously combusted in the middle of the night. There was no way he was going to bother Erik when he'd had such a busy week at the office and yeah, it was stupid, but he also didn’t want him to think he couldn’t handle this.

‘Can you stand, dude? Okay, let’s go sit on the bed and talk this out, my legs are kinda going dead sitting here.’ Aaron didn’t laugh at Nicky’s attempt at humour, but he obediently stood, leaning on Nicky a little, and followed him to sit on the edge of his cousin’s bed. Nicky didn’t really know what to do with his hands. No thirteen year old kid wants their parent (or legal guardian, bite him), holding their hand, and they still hadn’t gotten close enough for Nicky to feel comfortable putting his arm around Aaron now that he wasn’t starved of oxygen. He settled for just turning slightly to face him, not full-on enough for Aaron to feel interrogated, and asked, ‘You gonna tell me what this is about?’

Aaron shook his head, tight lipped, but mumbled, ‘I forgot’, nonetheless. 

Nicky didn’t follow. He didn’t want to prod, but there was an opening here for at least one of his damaged and reclusive charges to open up to him and he was damned if he was going to let it slide. ‘Forgot what, buddy?’ Nicky fought the urge to flinch as he waited for a response, worried he’d pushed too far, but Aaron replied simply: ‘This’. He waved his hand vaguely in afterthought, encompassing Nicky, himself and the room. Nicky sat in silence, understanding. It had only been a couple of weeks; it must still be incredibly jarring to Aaron, who had been in the same place his whole life, if not to the transient Andrew, to wake up in a different place. He wished there was something he could do to make the transition easier for the both of them, but he could see no way forward except to feign normality after what they’d been through and wait for them to come to him.

Aaron stared into space for so long Nicky thought the conversation was over. ‘I used to dream about mum – you know. Sometimes after she – I wouldn’t always remember what had happened. So when I woke up, I’d go and check, to see if she was asleep. So I could be sure it hadn’t happened and I hadn’t just forgotten.’ Aaron looked down at his hands. ‘I wasn’t expecting it to be you.’

Nicky honestly thought he felt his battered heart tear in two; an old wound. Aaron looked so vacant now, so lost, but he knew that the terror he must have felt seeing someone he expected to be his mother sit up in bed at his entrance, followed by the shattering realisation that he wasn’t home and all the conflicted feelings that came with that must have been awful. What could he say to that? He’d saved the twins, but he’d also taken them – Aaron, at least – from everything he’d ever known. Nicky reached out and squeezed Aaron’s shoulder and retracted his hand instantly at Aaron’s barely restrained flinch, kicking himself. 

They sat in silence for a little while longer until Nicky’s eyelids started to feel heavy again. He didn’t want to baby Aaron, but he needed him to know that he wasn’t going to leave him, so he said, ‘I’m going to sleep again, I’m beat. There’s a chair if you want to stay?’ Nicky tried and failed to keep the hopeful note out of his voice. One breakthrough at a time, Nicky. He lay down, facing away from Aaron to give him space and closed his eyes. 

A few minutes later, Nicky felt the give in the mattress that said that Aaron had laid down beside him. He heard his cousin sigh, his breath warm on the back of Nicky’s neck and Nicky’s heart lurched. He screwed his eyes shut to them prickling with tears. Aaron’s breathing evened out pretty quickly after that and Nicky was just started to drift off himself when a slice of light cut across the carpet. 

Nicky’s head throbbed with exhaustion but he propped himself up on his elbows all the same, turning his head over his shoulder to see Andrew stepping soundlessly across the carpet. Nicky watched as he made his way over to the chair that he’d offered Aaron and perched on the edge of the seat. Andrew’s expression was blank, as usual, but the lines of his small frame were taut with attention. Wordless, he met Nicky’s sleepy stare with an intensity that simultaneously chilled and warmed him. It was an odd sensation, loving these boys as he did and yet being so afraid of their demons and his ability to meet them head on with his own.  
Andrew leaned back, legs spread and chin in hand without breaking his gaze. Nicky got the feeling that he wasn’t planning on leaving while his brother lay sleeping beside him but also knew without question that he’d be gone before either of them woke. Probably, Nicky should be concerned that this wasn’t the first time Andrew had sat up all night to watch his brother or his cousin sleep. Didn’t kids need sleep to function properly? Probably that explained quite a lot about all three of them. He could think about this tomorrow. Right now, Nicky lay back down to sleep, feeling inexplicably protected in a way that outweighed the unnerving experience of being watched intensely by Andrew.


End file.
